She’s a live wire in world of construction

One day, a retired construction worker who was a regular at the bar of Dorchester’s Old Colony Yacht Club told her she should give up bartending and become an electrician. She dismissed the idea at first.

“He kept pushing me, day after day,’’ Alfonso recalled. “I went kicking and screaming, but I finally did go to the IBEW hall, filled out an application, and took the test.’’

Today, Alfonso, a licensed electrician since 2004, heads one of the few minority woman-owned contracting businesses in Massachusetts. Based in Middleborough, Alfonso Electrical Services is in the midst of rapid growth and is working on several large Boston-area commercial and institutional projects.

Earlier this year, the company finished work on Northeastern University’s $200 million dormitory project on Parcel 18 in Roxbury. Her firm is installing new lighting on the Tobin Bridge, a new audio-visual system at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, and new wiring at State Street Bank in North Quincy.

As chief executive of a firm with $6 million in annual sales, Alfonso, 44, usually wears business dress and makeup to work. However, she does stay connected to her trade. She still personally handles smaller electrical projects for customers she has had since she started the company in the living room of her house on Brockton’s east side six years ago.

“I always feel so much better in jeans and work boots,’’ she said.

Women are a small but growing presence in construction. According to data compiled by the National Association of Women in Construction, they comprise about 10 percent of construction workers. In 2002, there were just under 200,000 women-owned construction firms in the United States, up 20 percent from five years earlier.

“Women are getting their foot in the door in the construction industry,’’ said Bruce Bolling, executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Small Contractors.

A key to the fast growth of Alfonso Electrical Services has been a strategic alliance the company formed with Dorchester-based Sullivan & McLaughlin Cos., one of New England’s largest electrical contractors.

The two companies have sought contracts together and worked together on a range of projects. Sullivan & McLaughlin often needs a minority-owned business partner to qualify for government-funded jobs. Alfonso’s company benefits from the larger firm’s experience, as well as its financial backing.

Reginald Nunnally, executive director of the State Office of Minority and Woman Business Assistance, said his agency has followed the growth of Alfonso’s company.

“The partnership has certainly been a key,’’ Nunnally said. “This could be a model of how to take emerging companies and expand their businesses.’’

The Northeastern University project was the first job the two companies did together, with Alfonso’s company working as Sullivan & McLaughlin’s subcontractor. The companies are working on several other projects now and have formed a new corporate entity, Havana-Mac, to undertake some work as a joint venture.

Alfonso Electrical Services now employs 15 electricians. This month, the company hired nine new employees, including three women and two minorities.

Sullivan & McLaughlin principal Hugh McLaughlin said his firm counseled Alfonso as her business grew. “She’s very responsive and ambitious,’’ said McLaughlin. “She’s tenacious.’’

Alfonso was 5 when she arrived in the United States with her family in 1970. Her father was an enemy of Fidel Castro’s regime, and the family came in a US airlift for Cuban dissidents. After a brief stay in Miami, the family moved to Boston and later resettled in Brockton.

She spent five years as an apprentice electrician, learning the sometimes demanding trade. “Some women do fine with it, and others don’t,’’ she said. “It’s cold, and we break our nails. Sometimes the toilets don’t flush, and there’s no ceiling over the bathrooms.’’

She found she could overcome the physical challenges. “The trades do try to make it easier for women, but it’s tough, and it can be dangerous,’’ she said. “You’re on your feet all day. Some of the tools can twist you around while you’re cutting things.’’

Alfonso said she did not have a problem with the male-dominated culture of construction workers. “Being a bartender, I was used to being around men,’’ she said.

She finished her apprenticeship and got her license in 2004, which happened to be when the Big Dig was winding down, and construction jobs were becoming scarce. Rather than try to find a job with a company, she decided to start her own.

“I thought I could go to people’s houses and hang ceiling fans for awhile,’’ Alfonso said.

She started by buying an advertisement with a direct mail company that sent envelopes with coupons to homes in the south suburbs. For most of her first year in business, she was her only employee, with her father, a retired laborer, sometimes helping as her apprentice.

Her business began to grow. She hired one electrician after about a year, then added another and an apprentice the following year. In early 2007, the State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance certified her company as eligible for preferences as a minority- and woman-owned business.

Michael Monahan, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103, has known Alfonso for many years. He first met her when she was a waitress at Molly Darcy’s in South Boston, then saw her again when she was an apprentice electrician. Later, he introduced Alfonso to Sullivan & McLaughlin officials when they were looking for a partner.

“She’s a dedicated person,’’ said Monahan. “Everything she does is 110 percent. She has no half speed.’’

Robert Preer can be reached at preer@globe.com.